Plea for help issued after two dolphins are shot and killed in the Gulf of Mexico

Published 2:22 pm, Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Photo: NOAA

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NOAA released graphic photos of the dolphins during medical exams to determine the cause of death. Officials hope that someone will be moved to call in with information about who fired the fatal shots.

NOAA released graphic photos of the dolphins during medical exams to determine the cause of death. Officials hope that someone will be moved to call in with information about who fired the fatal shots.

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Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Photo: NOAA

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Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Photo: NOAA

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Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Photo: NOAA

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Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Photo: NOAA

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Photo: NOAA

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Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Photo: NOAA

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Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Photo: NOAA

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Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Federal agents have issued an urgent plea for help after two protected bottlenose dolphins were shot and killed. One was killed with a hunting arrow, another with a gun, the second was pregnant.

Photo: NOAA

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This photo show the dolphin fetus that was removed from one of the dolphins. She was just weeks from giving birth.

This photo show the dolphin fetus that was removed from one of the dolphins. She was just weeks from giving birth.

"I felt like I was in a movie or a TV show, where you see things that happen and it doesn't feel like it's real," said Kirpach, an art history teacher in Frisco schools. "We've been diving in this area close to shore for years, and it was just an amazing feeling."

It's only the third time a case like this has ever been reported, the last being in 2009. "These were healthy starfish," said Tony Reisinger, Cameron County Extension Agent for Coastal & Marine Resources with Texas Sea Grant at Texas A&M University.

"It's like swimming with a submarine with teeth," Kelly said. "I mean, it's huge, it's unbelievable down there; it dwarfs everything I've ever seen underwater."
According to scientists at Mote, there is at least one other Great White in and around the Gulf and her name is Betsy.

Scientists are now studying the photos of a rare and gruesome goblin shark accidentally caught in the Gulf of Mexico after they spotted another unusual deep-sea creature lying with the captured beast on the deck of the boat.

After a two-hour battle, the anglers finally got the hammerhead to shore where they noticed its injury.
Friends looked on in amazement as Campus started pulling shark pups out intact and rushing them to the water so they could swim away.

The Bald Cypress forest, protected in an oxygen-free environment for more than 50,000 years, was likely uncovered by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Ben Raines, executive director of the nonprofit Weeks Bay Foundation and one of the first divers to explore the site.

The wreck, its identity and origin still unknown, remains in about 4,300 feet of water some 150 to 170 miles off Galveston. "What we have just completed is the deepest documentation, recovery and excavation of a shipwreck in U.S. waters," said James Delgado, one of eight marine archaeologists aboard the Nautilus.

Covadonga Arias, a professor of microbial genomics at Auburn University in Alabama, found that Vibrio vulnificus was 10 times higher in tar balls than in sand and up to 10 times higher than in seawater.

The discovery of three historic shipwrecks, most likely from the same event, is so unusual in the northern Gulf of Mexico that just about any information gained from their analysis will chart new ground, said a researcher on the project.

"I looked around baffled," she said by phone Thursday from Miramar Beach. "Is this really happening? It felt like something straight out of a movie."
Four days after the mysterious find, despite some promising leads, she's still trying to track down the owner.

Plea for help issued after two dolphins are shot and killed in the Gulf of Mexico

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Federal agents have issued a plea for help finding whoever is responsible for the deaths of two dolphins washed up on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

One of the two protected species was just about to deliver a baby when she died.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released graphic photos of the dolphin's bodies and the necropsy (a non-human autopsy) to try and stir people into calling in with tips about who might have fired the fatal shots. One was killed by a hunting arrow, the other by a small caliber gun.

The first dolphin, a pregnant bottlenose, was found dead on Miramar Beach near Destin, Florida, at the end of November. After a medical examination, officials determined a bullet had lodged in her lung.

A second dolphin was found this past Sunday on Orange Beach, Alabama, with the hunting arrow still sticking out of its side. Experts say it's likely the dolphin survived several days before an infection from the wound killed it.

A reward of $2,500 has been offered in the case of the pregnant dolphin, from the Whale Dolphin Conservation Society.

"WDC is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of those responsible for the death of a protected bottlenose dolphin in the seas around Florida, USA." the organisation says on its website.

In the case of the second dolphin, the Humane Society of the United States and The Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust have offered $5,000. They say its death makes a total of 13 dolphins shot and killed since 2010.

"This intelligent, social creature experienced tremendous suffering from this senseless act," said Mindy Gilbert, Alabama state director for the HSUS in a news release. "We are grateful for NOAA's work to investigate this heinous crime and are hoping someone with information will come forward."

The Humane Society also emphasize that harming a dolphin is a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and is punishable by criminal penalties up to $100,000 and one year in jail. Civil penalties up to $11,000 per count may also be assessed.

Anyone with information concerning the shootings is asked to call NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement in Niceville, Florida, at 850-729-8628 or the NOAA Enforcement Hotline at 1-800-853-1964. Callers may remain anonymous.